Watchdog

Russian police have freed 15 Kyrgyz children who were forced to work in an underground factory in Moscow Oblast, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Police said they discovered an illegal textile shop in Noginsk, about 50 kilometers from Moscow, where migrants from Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan were working.

Margarita Maslova, a spokeswoman for the criminal investigation department in Moscow Oblast, told RFE/RL that the children were reportedly forced to work at night. She said that if they did not fulfill their work quotas they were punished.

She added that numerous bruises and signs of a beating were found on the body of an 11-year-old boy employed at the shop.

A Kyrgyz native who is registered in Moscow Oblast was reportedly selecting children from poor Kyrgyz families to work in the factory.

Criminal charges are expected for the use of slave labor of children and operation of a clandestine factory.

The president of Azerbaijan has granted amnesty to an opposition journalist who rights groups say was jailed for his critical writings.

Musfiq Huseynov was among 99 people granted amnesty by President Ilham Aliyev.

Huseynov, a reporter with the opposition "Bizim yol" (Our Path) newspaper, was jailed for six years in 2008 on charges of accepting a bribe.

Huseynov's relatives said recently he was suffering from tuberculosis in prison and that they were worried about his deteriorating health.

Azerbaijan has faced persistent criticism over its heavy-handed treatment of independent media, most recently in a European Parliament resolution criticizing the jailing of opposition journalists.

compiled from agency reports